For energy to be useable, it has to be able to flow from a higher to a lower level. It is sometimes claimed that there can be no significant outcome to the process of evolution because with every transaction that takes place, the total stock of useable energy is run down.

If energy were a purely physical phenomenon this is undoubtedly true. But energy has two aspects. It operates in a physical, determinedly mechanistic way but it also generates mental phenomena. Alphomism makes the prediction that the laws which relate to mental energy will be the inverse of those which relate to the physical version.

The justification for making such a bold pronouncement is twofold. Firstly, it fits with all the other aspects of the theory, it ‘makes sense’. Many scientific predictions have been made on such a basis and have been tested subsequently. Secondly, the notion is in accord with subjective experience. We seem to be able to exercise ‘will power’, we have a strong notion that we can ‘make an effort’.

The technology for an actual scientific testing is probably a long way from current capability. The technique would involve measuring all the energy transactions in a brain and working out a balance sheet. The specific hypothesis would be that for a brain which is engaging in willed activity the overall energy economy would show an advantage when compared with a brain which is ‘making no effort.’

If, as supposed, there is a generating effect then, far from running down, the universe will be re-energised as the level of mentality increases.